By LARRY LANGE, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Voters in Puget Sound counties appeared Tuesday to have approved a $22.8 billion transit expansion package, the biggest in several decades. And state voters were saying that highway car pool and bus lanes should remain open only to car pools and transit, rejecting the latest Tim Eyman transportation initiative.

Sound Transit's Proposition 1 was its second attempt in two years to expand its rail and bus system beyond what it already operates or is building. The package is to be financed by a 0.5 percent increase in the sales tax in the urban areas of King, Pierce and Snohomish counties. In early returns, the measure was passing in Snohomish and King counties.

Backers said the package was needed to relieve congestion, to provide commuters with alternatives to single-occupant cars and to reduce air pollution. Led chiefly by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, they said gasoline prices are likely to continue to rise, despite recent declines in oil prices, and the expansion will provide a needed alternative for travelers.

Voters rejected an even larger package a year ago that included a highway-improvement levy. Backers decided to try again this year, hoping higher gas prices and higher transit ridership and the presidential race would bring out more favorable voters.

"There's a sense of the new reality ... that the age when we can get around exclusively by car is over, and we need to catch up," said Mike O'Brien of the Sierra Club, which backed this year's measure.

Opponents, as they had last year, said the measure would cost taxpayers far too much for what it offered and that higher taxes were a bad idea in a tough economy.

If the measure ultimately passes, it will expand Sound Transit bus and commuter rail service and add 34 more miles of light rail line, extending the system under construction to Northgate, Bellevue and Highline Community College by 2020, to the Overlake area of Redmond by 2021 and to Lynnwood and the Federal Way area by 2023.

Initial work on the expansion will include ordering of new buses and a bus-expansion plan out for public comment in January. If the measure gets approval, its plans also include finishing environmental studies early next year for the light rail connection to the Eastside, choosing a precise route and starting engineering. It may also begin designing the rail route between the University of Washington and Northgate and start buying more Sounder rail cars.

The car pool lane measure, the Eyman-backed Initiative 985, would have opened car pool lanes to all traffic in nonpeak hours and required local governments to synchronize traffic lights on arterials. It would have set up a statewide traffic-congestion account for projects, financed by money collected by cities and counties in fines from red-light cameras and by 15 percent of the state sales tax revenue from auto sales.

It also would have required tolls charged on specific bridges or highway segments to be used only for projects on those highways. Eyman said one intent was to remove what he called a profit motive for the cameras, which he said have been installed to raise revenue for local governments. Some liked the idea of opening up the car pool lanes

But opponents said cities and counties already synchronize signals, and opening the car pool lanes to all traffic for part of the day could fill those lanes with more traffic. Others said shifting money to build roads would hurt schools, health care and law enforcement and could hurt the sale of bonds to finance a new Evergreen Point Bridge.